What network would you had picked to broadcast WCW in 2001?

[One to Remember]

Something that has been bothering me for years is the circumstances that lead to WCW falling under the yoke of the World Wrestling Federation. Its well known that Eric bischoff had found the investors to buy WCW but that was when WCW was being sold but not kicked of of TBS or TNT. wHEN THAT Became apparent to investors they backed out pulling the rug from underneath Easy E. What channels did you think were apprpriate homes for WCW with Turner execs declaring wrestling low brow and not appealing o the demographics they hoped to attract?

In 2001 I thought Turner South would had been the perfect network for WCW. It had WCW Classics, continued well past thedeath of WCW to show WCW Classics, and WCW appealed to southerners. I also felt TNN had those same regional links that would had made it a great home for WCW.

I had also secretly hoped that WCW would move to the PAX network and as its highest rated show begin to take over the network as a whole.

Was there a local channel or any station that you felt strongly about WCW moving to?

 

[Slyfox696]

Well, obviously, one would want a show like WCW to move to a big time network station like NBC or CBS, but realistically that isn't going to happen.

I think if timing had worked out better and things were possible, seeing WCW take the USA Network as it's home would have been very interesting, and would have renewed the Monday Night Wars. Raw had already moved to what is now called Spike TV by that time, and for WCW to come in and take up their show, and especially in the same timeslot, would have been quite the coup.

 

[One to Remember]

right right my mistake i was thinking of 2000. by 2001 it was already Spike TV. Asfar as network tv is concerned Fox used to air WCW Worldwide and then the WB had WWF Bottomline so the WB was open to wrestling. I could totally see Thunder on G4. Bravo also seemed viable..

 

[czar76]

there was talk of WGN, out of chicago. the channel was mainly a cable station in the midwest but they were planning to go national. clearly nothing ever came of it. a few years ago i read something about them talking with tna before they got on spike and again nothing.

i live in southern illinois and was familiar with WGN. it may have worked for wcw. fresh start with a station that was trying something new. in the end i think wgn flopped it's attempt to go national so i guess it worked out for the best.

 

[TristanCross]

right right my mistake i was thinking of 2000. by 2001 it was already Spike TV. Asfar as network tv is concerned Fox used to air WCW Worldwide and then the WB had WWF Bottomline so the WB was open to wrestling. I could totally see Thunder on G4. Bravo also seemed viable..

Actually, Spike TV wouldn't come to be until two years later in 2003. In 2001, the network now known as Spike TV was advertised as the "New" TNN. WWE programming didn't cease from TNN/Spike until 2005.

Concerning what network I would choose to broadcast WCW, I really can't say. TNT was the home of WCW.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

The network I think that would of been perfect for WCW would of been... The WB. This is why... Most of the shows on that channel are teen dramas(The ones dedicated to females and guys who had false visions of high school). Very bad demographic.

The reason being, The WB needed something big to get their ratings moving. Still to date, The Super Man show, or "SmallVille" however you spell is the highest rating show ever on that network.

WCW, could of done that. Plus could of reached out to the younger audience, made them drink the cool aide, and thus WWE would of had healthy competition still to this date.

 

[One to Remember]

Concerning what network I would choose to broadcast WCW, I really can't say. TNT was the home of WCW.

lol TNT is not a choice. This is how I see it, TNT was the home or house, WCW was the ugly step child who everyone briefly liked for 85 weeks. WCW's father in the house was Ted Turner but when daddy would leave step mommy, Jamie Keller would yell and give put downs to poor ol' WCW, and WCW's two half brothers AOL and Time Warner would bully him.

Its my opinion Tristan that WCW really never had a home on TNT..

there was talk of WGN, out of chicago. the channel was mainly a cable station in the midwest but they were planning to go national.

I forgot about WGN but thats what I was thinking of. Actually it was a superstation like TBS which meant it was basically a local network being shown al over. I live below the Mason Dixon line though and we have gotten WGN for the last 20 plus years. So i would had been a good choice for WCW.

 

[Chris31974]

F/X would have been a good station, and plus you see all the TV-MA stuff they put on there, WCW would have hardly had any restrictions placed on them, content-wise.

 

[mr.continental]

Comedy Central, because by then it was a joke.

Honestly though, I would have tried to get it on mtv. I base this on the fact that they had shown a wrestling show before and was part of the same company as spike.

 

[johnbragg]

Turner South was under the AOL-Time Warner umbrella, just like TBS and TNT. USA had just broken with WWF, and was selling advertisers on the idea that their demographics were better with CSI and Monk than with all those low-class wrestling fans on Mondays, boxing fans on Tuesdays, and horny boys late at night. TNN/Spike and the rest of the Viacom networks (MTVs, Nickelodeon, a few others) were tied into WWF.

Fox would have been a logical possibility--they had deep pockets and no standards.

But anyone who took over WCW would have had the same problem WWF did--without Hogan, Goldberg and the NWO, WCW was nearly worthless. You couldn't sell out arenas to tape the shows in with Jarrett, Scott Steiner and Booker T as your main eventers, even with DDP in the mix.

McMahon had apparently planned to relaunch WCW Saturday Night on TNN, but the talent just wasn't there to make it work. The timeslot became Velocity and WWE Confidential.

 

[dajints]

I believe that at that time when there was still a lot of the "attitude" era type wrestling happening that WCW or even ECW could have been successful on a pay channel like HBO or Showtime. Especially a live show.

 

[One to Remember]

John Bragg howdo you know what a revamped relaunched WCW would have hadto offer in2001? Surely more then TNA with more resources then ECW. WCW had the history, a roster mixed with neglected new bloods, and top names. WCW existed for years without Goldberg, Hogan, or Nash. WCW needed to move away from the latter two. WCW needed to operate at a level it could handle so the venues would reasonably be smaller. Never the rediculus size of the ImPact Zone though. WCW had by 2001, the Filthy Animals, Lance Storm, Steiner, Book, A.J. Styles, Sting, a much younger Flair, and a lot of other talent. Why does WCW have tomeet 1996 standards all the damn time? Yoi don't say WWE is failing because it doesn't have an Attitude Era or Hulkamania era reach over the public anymore, yet WWE remains.

dajints no. How many WCW fans had HBO? Hell for the first 2 years all of my Nitro information came from Saturday Night and Worldwide.
Turner South was a Turner ch. but the issues at TNT and TBS would not be there. The only downside is TS was only seen in TN, SC, AL, GA, Miss., and ironically in only the western half of WCW's land of origins, North Cackalackee.
Looking back WGN was a definitely option to use as insurance. Fox would make the most sense though. FX for Nitro, local fox for Worldwide or Thunder tapings.

 

[johnbragg]

John Bragg howdo you know what a revamped relaunched WCW would have hadto offer in2001?

I know what they wouldn't have had to offer--the talent that was under Time Warner contract, sitting at home collecting checks while the WWF/WCW Invasion angle went down the drain--Hogan, Nash, Hall, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Lex Luger. They would have been at home collecting checks while WCW on Fox was going down the drain with Jarrett, Steiner, Booker, DDP, Lance Storm and maybe Sting as the main event scene.

Who was going to give this group credibility with mainstream audiences? Ric Flair? Randy Savage? Roddy Piper? Curt Hennig?

Touring and taping shows every week costs serious money. That's why TNA is in the Impact Zone. WCW on Fox on Friday nights would have had to get more viewers than Smackdown ever did to avoid being cancelled.

Fox didn't pick up WCW for a reason. It was a hollowed-out husk of a company.

 

[Stormtrooper]

1. What in the hell is Turner South? I lived in New York at the time, and now I live in Pennsylvania. I have never even HEARD of Turner South. That makes it not viable for a national wrestling program, since, well, it's not a national channel. Absolutely 0 chance putting the show on that channel makes ANY sense.

2. Whoever said WGN falls in the same boat. WGN tries to be national, but it isn't. I know from personal experience that my Cable provider in New York has never carried WGN.

3. Worldwide was a syndicated TV program. I highly doubt that Fox would nationally pick the show up and put it on their major network. It would likely stay syndicated, and local markets would have picked it up, much like it did throughout its duration.

As for what network I would put WCW on in 2001, it's hard to say. WCW was failing at the time, and TV networks wouldn't want to pick up a failing television show, because it's bad business.

In a fantasy world, where I can choose from any network for each show, it's pretty simple:
Nitro: USA, since wrestling was already a viable program for the network
Thunder: Fox, because it is one of the top 4 major networks (probably even higher then that), and having a presence on national over-the-air TV was a huge deal at the time.

In real life though, I highly doubt that any major cable network would have wanted to pick up WCW programming. The best bet would be a national TV channel that was also failing, but would hope that WCW (and the publicity that would come with it) would help revive the network. I have no clue if such a network existed back in 01, but if it did, that would have been the best case scenario. Put a sinking ship on another sinking ship and hope that it somehow floats back to the top of the ocean.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Well, obviously, one would want a show like WCW to move to a big time network station like NBC or CBS, but realistically that isn't going to happen.

I think if timing had worked out better and things were possible, seeing WCW take the USA Network as it's home would have been very interesting, and would have renewed the Monday Night Wars. Raw had already moved to what is now called Spike TV by that time, and for WCW to come in and take up their show, and especially in the same timeslot, would have been quite the coup.

This. And Ill add on to it.

This move possibly keeps the WWE on Spike TV for the foreseeable future and there's no move for the WWE back to USA. The ratings would have been reasonable depending on the talent that WCW managed to retain. If they keep the same roster, which included a young AJ Styles and other talent that have been between TNA and ROH, I think WCW could have been a success.

The easy choice would be USA. But to possibly think outside the box... what about ESPN or ESPN 2? Entirely possible. Because ESPN Classic would not only have AWA's old library of programming, but have original WCW classic broadcasts that could be called WCW Classics or some shit. In 2001, wrestling was still white hot. And ESPN would put the gumption behind it to market the product like crazy.

 

[One to Remember]

WCW wasn'tgoingto work on ESPN because there is a respect issue between them and pro wrestling..

WCW Nitro remained one of the highest rated programs ON CABLE in GENERAL. A potential network cares about that more then a struggle between Vince and Ted or WCW and the WWF.

Stormtrooper of course you didn't get Turner South because you live UP FREAKIN NORTH!! But WCW has always had a stronger regional following. Either way TS is better then no home at all. And WGN has also been down here. Acording to wikipedia New England is the only region that did not get WGN but WCW could try to find regional networks to feel those voids.

Asfar as the roster do you think WCW needed to depend on Hogan and the Outsiders for ever? WCW had a lot of non Turner/Time Warner contracted talent like Lance Storm and AJ Styles and Elix Skipper. It was time for a change..